Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

And Great Wines To Enjoy With It

CAPSULE REPORT: We’ve taken one of America’s favorite gourmet chocolate desserts—chocolate molten lava cake—and experimented to find the best wine pairings for a memorable dessert experience. We’ve provided a recipe for chocolate molten lava cake if you don’t have your own favorite. Why not invite some friends over for dessert—it’s the fun part of the meal, and you don’t have to make a complete dinner! As far as the wines, we tried all the “likely suspects” and ended up preferring a wine that most people don’t know of, but you’ll certainly want to try, Luciano Landi Lacrima di Morro d’Alba Passito. Also think of it as a gift for your chocolate-loving friends.

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Introduction

Molten chocolate cakes, also known as lava cakes, have been the rage for more than a decade. It’s no surprise—this warm cake served in individual portions is insanely good. It’s not difficult to make at home, but please use a quality brand of chocolate. We used Callebaut bittersweet chocolate this time, but we’ve used other top brands in the past, including Valrhona and Ghirardelli. If you are more comfortable with supermarket chocolate, just do it: This cake waits for no man. But it does wait for dark chocolate—milk chocolate doesn’t produce the same results. The higher the percentage of cacao, the more sophisticated—less sweet and more intensely chocolate—your dessert will be. We personally aim for a cacao percentage in the 70s, although milk chocolate lovers will be happier in the 50% to 60% range.

Serve the lava cake hot out of the oven so that when your friends cut into it with a spoon or fork, the chocolate oozes out like hot lava. That’s dessert magic! Any cold leftovers the next day are still pretty darn good.

If you enjoy a dessert wine, what’s the best to pair with your lava cake? We tasted a variety of wines that are known to go with chocolate cake. Some worked, some didn’t. Our report is below. But first, a recipe for this favorite dessert. If you don’t have time to bake, you can order them online from JRDessertBakery.com.